Following the statements made yesterday by the President of the Regional Government, announcing the decision to sell the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital, the political commission of the MPT Madeira questions the real interest in building a new hospital.
Considering that: “the doctors will be exactly the same; the equipment will be identical or only slightly updated; the number of beds will not undergo significant changes; there are warnings that investment in medicines may be reduced; the problem of problematic discharges, which continues to force the postponement of surgeries, remains unresolved”, the MPT recalls, in a statement, that the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital could “precisely contribute to resolving this last point”.
The political commission of the MPT Madeira acknowledges “that the infrastructure does not meet the conditions to function as a retirement home. However, this does not prevent it from being repurposed for essential functions within the regional health system, namely as an Integrated Continuing Care Unit (UCCI) and as a dedicated response to high-risk cases.”
“Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital has the conditions to accommodate this type of response” and “it is important to emphasize that there are currently around 230 patients in problematic discharge situations, occupying approximately one third of the hospital’s approximately 600 beds,” the party states.
“It is foreseeable that this number will increase in the coming years, due to low family incomes and growing job insecurity, which hinder home support for these users. According to the president of the regional government, the proceeds from the sale will be used to amortize part of the costs of the new central hospital. However, according to official data from the Regional Government itself, ‘at the end of November 2025, the overall consolidated balance of the Regional Public Administration is in surplus by 126.6 million euros’. Thus, there are no foreseeable financial reasons that justify the need to sell the building.”
Given this information, the political commission of the MPT Madeira questions: “Why sell an infrastructure that can be reused at low cost, for a use similar to its current purpose? And, even more so, if the Regional Government considers that the building presents ‘excessive costs and dysfunctions that are not sustainable from a financial and functional point of view’, why would these same costs be sustainable for a private buyer?”